Boston Public School Goals

At the Charlestown community meeting on school choice options that was held last week by Boston Public School (BPS) officials, two goals that will affect the children in our neighborhood who attend or might attend the public schools were brought to light.

The first goal dealt with the commitment of BPS and Mayor Menino to improve the quality of teachers and leaders at all Boston elementary and middle schools. While the Elliot School in the North End and the Kent Harvard and Warren Prescott Schools in Charlestown are excellent K-8 schools highly sought after by parents not only in these neighborhoods but throughout the city, there still are 21 schools in Boston that are underachieving and need high support according to BPS officials. These schools have now been targeted to be given added resources to improve their educational standings. The improvement of these schools could very well determine if some of the more than 18,000 Boston school aged children who attend private schools today could decide to attend the BPS system. The ambitious plan to take on 21 schools for a dramatic turnaround may seem unrealistic, but BPS officials did exactly this for 11 troubled schools in 2010. These low achieving schools were given not only attention, but also resources, to make effective change. Today, these schools have achieved many measures of academic success.

This proves that BPS officials do have the know-how to improve the schools. The larger question is whether BPS system will have the resources, not only to keep maintaining the performing schools, but also to commit and manage the added resources to raise the bar at the 21 non-performing schools. A BPS teacher who attended a meeting in Charlestown stated that “it is too easy to be a lousy teacher and school leader in this city.” This crucial need to be able to advance good teachers over underperforming teachers and administrators is probably the most important component of turning around Boston public schools on a citywide basis.

If the BPS plan to provide a quality education at any neighborhood school is successful, then today’s need for parents choosing to have their children bused from their neighborhood to a high performing school more than a mile and half away would become moot. With excellent neighborhood schools throughout Boston, it would follow that our present neighborhood schools would certainly have enough spaces to accommodate the neighborhood children and then some.

Another stated goal at this neighborhood session was the possibility of a new downtown school. For years, parents in Beacon Hill and Back Bay have tried unsuccessfully to have a public neighborhood school built that could accommodate the children from these neighborhoods. Plans for a neighborhood elementary public school that have been bandied about included parents donating a building on the flat of Beacon Hill to talk of an elementary school being built in the complex of the Government Center Garage redevelopment when it was aired almost three years ago. The possibility of a new public downtown school could have a very positive impact for the families in Back Bay and Beacon Hill.

These two goals being discussed by BPS officials deserve the support of not only parents in our neighborhood, but also all property owners in our neighborhoods.

jonshore

Come on now, how can BPS open a small school downtown after
closing 12 schools the last six months in Roxbury and Dorchester? Especially
when BPS is currently forcing a takeover of the Marshall School by UP Academy, a CITYWIDE
In-district Charter School, on the Dorchester Community! Up Academy will
leave the Dorchester Community with one less neighborhood walk-zone school and
less seats for Dorchester children. In addition, the BPS will forever have to
pick up the transportation costs for children CITYWIDE who want to go there!

A new school downtown would just contribute to the already congested traffic
and parking issues in the area. Your neighbors and the property owners on Beacon Hill and Back Bay wouldn’t be happy about that! I can just imagine a yellow school bus trying
to crawl up North Anderson Street in a blizzard! Beacon Hill had two
school building that were shut down because the neighborhood just wouldn’t
support them during busing. Now these buildings are condos.

BPS shouldn’t be opening any new schools, especially any charter schools (and
isn’t this what Beacon Hill and Back Bay families are really entertaining! An extended
day, manned by uncompensated teachers and staff, would be quite a savings to
families) until the new student assignment plan has been actualized, and we see
where the “quality schools” are located. BPS won’t know that until students are assigned to schools. Student test scores are the
“data” that will ascertain where “quality” schools are
located!

Only when BPS moves away from the “portfolio of schools” model
and becomes a unified school district, which will assure equity and “quality”
for all of Boston’s children, can we consider creating a new school
downtown.